Archive for March, 2011

While I decide on and then work on my next project I’ll give some updates on getting ready for the WWWP 5K.

Last night I mapped out a route through the valley subdivision behind us. It is like a lasso. The start out length is the same ending length with a circle attached. Today I took our son to track practice. He said it would be short today so I figured what the hay…go for it. I dressed appropriately and went out there and “ran” on the track and made it around two times for a half mile. I am sure I was getting slower and slower but I made it!

So I have ten more days to make it to 3.1 miles!

Houston, we may have a problem!

I just looked at my schedule for that Sunday. Of course there is church in the morning. Then we come home for lunch. I am scheduled to lead singing for the evening service so I have to be back at church by 5:45.

I can see it now! I come into church that evening holding myself up with crutches, on oxygen and trying to lead singing while not spasming all over the place or not coughing up a who knows what! Not a pretty picture!

I may have to re-think this. Maybe shift over to the bike and double the route or something. I am sure all of us would do that. We can ride over to the forest preserve and ride there and back. Everyone would probably like that more than the running part. So I will just push the running part off a bit, but still keep it as a goal. You all gotta hold me to it too! Also get some shoes other than my work boots to run in! 😉 Ya think?!

Well that’s it for now. I leave for class in an hour, got a test tonight.

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Well I am gonna try the WWWP5k set for April 10. World-wide wordpress 5k. Run, walk, bike, swim and in my case crawl! 🙂

It is just a fun way to try to get us bloggers out for some exercise. Then to blog about the experience and take pictures. So I signed up! I figured why not, I could use some exercise and I’m gonna try to get all of us that are home to do it. We got less than 2 weeks to prep for it.

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Today I have for you my first two piece wood craft. It is a heart shelf. That said I might as well show it right away.

My first shelf

For this shelf I had to drill 52 holes to make 50 cuts on the heart piece. The other two holes are for the mounting screws. The shelf has two square pegs that slide into two square holes. With the lacquer finish they are pretty tight.

A look down at the shelf

It has a nice reflection from the spray lacquer if I do say so myself!

A side shot

It works!

This project was enjoyable. It had a little of everything. Lots of holes to drill, some not so hard cuts and some intricate cuts. It was definitely not one of instant gratification, because it took more time to do. If you can see, it is the same on each half. So I really wanted each opposite cut to look the same. The pattern was actually off a bit and I had to make adjustments in a couple areas.

This is from 1/2″ maple, dipped in lemon oil, and spray lacquered. The lemon oil really made the maple look good.

Tools used were; a band saw to cut the wood small enough, a drill press to drill the holes, blue painters tape for easy removal, 3M 77 spray adhesive to attach the pattern to the tape, a scroll saw for cutting where the holes were drilled and the outer cuts, a sander to get the fuzzies off and get the wood smooth, lemon oil in a bin for dipping the wood to bring out its natural grain and Rust-Oleum spray lacquer for a nice gloss finish.

So there you have it! More than you ever wanted to know if you read this far. I hope you like the looks of this project. I don’t know what is next. I have lots of ideas, just have to pick one and get it on!

Considering this being the only time I have blogged during the NCAA tournament I have some more fodder today.

Yep, I declare my bracket officially busted! Usually I think I do okay. I mean wins and losses, but also picking at least two of the final four and once in a while a finalist, but never the winner. Well today I officially lost all my final four teams.

Who did I have? OSU, Texas, Kansas, and Florida. With OSU and Florida in the final and OSU winning it. HA! Again I say HA! NEVER go with a small, I mean big ten (notice little letters) team. I thought this might be the year though. I mean 7 big ten teams in it, come on! I picked 4 to advance in the second round, 5 did. I thought hey what is happening here?! 5 out of 7 advance ? I thought I was risking it taking 4! The third round settled them out, I had only OSU advancing but Wisconsin proved me wrong. Then they both lost in the sweet sixteen, bye bye big ten.

But wow! All the upsets this year, and a lot of them were close and could have gone either way, without a foul here or there and a made or missed basket changes a lot.

So with none in the final four I can put my record this year at 41 wins and 26 losses. VCU and Butler are playing great! With really no surprise with Kentucky and UConn making it. I just didn’t pick them! Who woulda thunk it, an 11 playing an 8 to face a 3 or a 4. No number 1’s!

So what’s next?! It might be fun to see VCU win it all, but my heart goes with Butler. I think they have a better chance of beating who ever they play in the final. UK and UConn I don’t really care, maybe lean towards UK. But what do I know, at least this year!

So how did or are you doing?

Later, Harold

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Well we made it to the craft show this afternoon at the college up the street from us. We went to see what was there. We met another mom and her daughter there. So it was me, my wife, our 12 year old daughter, our friend and her 11 year old daughter. Our girls are friends too.

I was especially interested the wood crafters and what they were doing. The ladies well what can I say they had to look at most everything. We stuck together for a while. Then I broke off with the girls. The moms eventually caught up and I broke away on my own for a bit then met back up with them again.

I can’t say I was disappointed at all. There were about 10 wood crafters. Two were doing actual hand wood carving, kinda neat to watch. Most had their own thing they were doing. One did figurines with an Easter theme and hand painted them. One guy had animal puzzles. These were pretty cool! We talked for quite a bit. He did all his work on the scroll saw like me. Others did a combo of scroll saw work and also used a lathe or a band saw. One guy had some pretty rustically made toy vehicles. Another two had the corn-hole toss games and one some vases. So some pretty neat work all in all and all different. Some things I think I could do and also do better. But no one really doing what I would be thinking of doing. Does that mean I am too simplistic? I don’t know yet. I plan on doing more than what I have shown so far. Plus I am still learning and maybe holding myself back from trying some more difficult work. But I do think I can do it. I will have one for you tomorrow that was more difficult and time consuming.

The ladies bought some hair bauble stuff. We all sampled any food we could. I went for the hot/spicy stuff. I went back and got a jar of sour dill with habanero pepper pickles. Ooooh baby are they hot! Just the way I like it! Last time we got some sour dill with horseradish pickles and some plain old sour dill pickles those were good too.

I offered to let my wife have a say here too, but she has to think more. I kinda just let it flow out. Maybe another time.

Well that was the show from my point of view. We spent about two and a half hours there. Now time to pick out some songs to lead for evening church and get ready to go.

Could it be that from the title I have made my very own car out of wood! Or am I looking to start spelling wars for said title of such car? Or am I looking for more viewers by putting a pic up there first?

Well I don’t know if it works or not but if you guessed number three you would be close.

Those who know our family might know where I am going by the BMW part. The rest is just fluff.

Our oldest son was home on spring break this past week. He is gone again. He is part of two competitions this weekend. One today in Ohio and another on Monday back in our area in Chicago. While he was here I made his initials for a desktop for him. This is walnut wood again. Yes, his initials are BMW and here they are!

Yes, he does like the cars that have the same initials. He also likes the new Ford Mustangs.

I have about done all I can with that piece of walnut. Now the rest becomes designer firewood. Unless I can figure out a few more small things to do with what is left of it. Maybe this woodcrafter will come up with something.

Gonna try to get to a local craft show at the college up the street either today or tomorrow. Gotta see what others are doing, maybe get some ideas or see that what I would do is not being done, at least locally. Also to see what people are pricing things at.

Until the next one.

Later, Harold

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I am saddened today. I went to the blog Off The Base, it’s on my blogroll, and read about another of our fallen soldiers. So my heart is heavy for this family and every family that has lost a service man or woman.

If this soldier believes as I do, then he is waiting in heaven for the rest of his family. His wife and/or mother used terms that fit my belief and his fearlessness on the front lines seem to jive with belief in a saving God. How else could he do what he did and believe that he would go home?

Well, he is home if he believed as I do. His fearlessness may not have been false bravado. If he lived he would go home to his family. If he did not survive a battle confrontation then he would go home to heaven where his heavenly Father had prepared a place for him. Either way he would be going home. He had nothing to fear and heaven to gain!

He talked with a Baptist minister. I have a brother-in-law who is a Baptist minister, so my sister is, (hi sis!) my Gpa was a Baptist and my Mom grew up Baptist. So I have some knowledge of Baptists. They take talking about getting saved serious! It is not something taken lightly.

The troops he served with seem to respect him and how he acted.

I admit I have little to go with. But yet I have this feeling I will see Michael Mahr some day.